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The Spirit of Tengri to present at EXPO two concerts of the world-famous ethno-bands

The international project of contemporary ethnic music The Spirit of Tengri will present two major concerts of the famous musical ethno bands at EXPO, Tengrinews.kz reports.

On July 20 at 20.00 in the concert space "Energy hall" on the premises of EXPO a multimedia show from the American-Iranian-Turkish music project Niyaz will take place. And on August 20 at 20.00 there, in "Energy hall", there will be a solo concert of Dhafer Youssef, a famous musician from Africa.

"We are pleased to announce that the events dedicated to the fifth anniversary of our project do not end: in May we successfully held the anniversary Spirit The Tengri in Almaty, then together with the Akimat in the capital we hosted a grandiose debut - The Spirit of Astana, whereas with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan there was the first international musical festival of nomadic culture Nomad Way, and now we are ready to announce two more events that will be held in Astana and EXPO in July and August this year. These will be solo concerts of famous performers in Europe South America and other corners of the Earth. These bands will come to Kazakhstan for the first time, and Astana residents and its visitors will have a unique opportunity to watch unforgettable multimedia shows," - Maria Mirnaya, the spokesperson for the international project of contemporary ethnic music The Spirit of Tengri, said.

Niyaz band was founded in 2004 by singer Azam Ali, Loga Ramin Torkian from the Iranian band Axiom Of Choice. The name Niyaz means "strong desire” in Persian and Urdu. Their music is described as "the mystical sound of the modern bias," which is essentially a mix of the Sufi mysticism and trance-electronics.

Since 2005, the Niyaz project has performed in the USA, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Turkey, India, Russia, Poland, Dubai, Mexico, Finland, Slovenia, Italy, Portugal, Croatia, Morocco, Tunisia and Austria. Their music was also presented in several major films and on television.

In March 2015, Niyaz released their fourth studio album, The Fourth Light, a tribute to the first woman - the Sufi mystic and poetess Rabie Al Basri, who was born in the VIII century in Iraq. She was recognized as a saint, since it was her who set forth the idea of Divine Love and non-duality, which today is the basis of Sufi mysticism. The album has been critically acclaimed, especially on the BBC World Service, Huffington Post, NPR, World of the World and MTV. Niyaz seeks to create music with a deep social message aimed at uniting people from different cultural and religious layers through our common humanity.

"Niyaz's concerts are more than just a music event; Niyaz is bringing us its new program, created in cooperation with interactive designer, visual artist Jerome Delapire. The multimedia show combines live music and dance performances with interactive advanced projection technologies and teleportation that react to the sound and motion in real time. The final result creates a new kind of digital scene and a live musical experience in which the virtual and real space merge to create an illusory three-dimensional environment in which the distance between the audience and the performers disappears. This united combination looks like a full-fledged performance with a string, culmination and finale. We are sure that those who may not even be keen on Ethnic music will be captured by this show. We are looking forward to this concert with great anticipation and invite all guests and residents of the capital to join, "- Maria Mirnaya noted.

A month after the performance of Niyaz, a well-known performer of ethnic music, a cosmopolitan composer, a singer and oud player Dhafer Youssef will appear on the same stage. Originally coming from Tunisia, since 1990 he has lived and worked in Europe. For the years of his creative activity, the unrivaled Tunisian composer has won the position of one of the most innovative musicians of the last decade.

Musical experts point out that Youssef has always managed to find new sound ideas in order to make his exhilarating vocals and poetic performance on the oud at a deeper level. In addition, according to critics, the singing of the Dhafer, brought up in Islamic traditions, is ennobled by the aura of spirituality. When his mysterious, inviting baritone jumps into a fascinating falsetto, the listener involuntarily feels that they are a part of the vast universe. Dhafer Youssef has released six albums that have received various international awards. In 2016, the last album of the musician Diwan Of Beauty And Odd was released, the songs of which will be presented at a concert in the "Energy Hall" at EXPO. Dhafer Youssef’s music is a fusion of oriental influences and the urban rhythm of New York, a vivid clash of traditions and modern influences, a universal appeal for peace.

Tickets are available on EXPO-2017 website. (*Important! You can attend the concert only if you have an entrance ticket to the Exhibition for this day.)